Zod's ship was plummeting at incredible speed. Not long after flying out of Washington, Thea saw the Kryptonian ship smash obliquely into Lex Luthor's building. Thea even deliberately used the Eye of Horus to observe Luthor's expression.
He was just sitting at home when disaster literally fell from the sky. A normal person would have been stunned long ago, but as one of the three most dangerous men alive, Luthor's reaction was terrifyingly fast. Sensing something was wrong, he abandoned the secretary who was reporting to him, leaped up, smashed through the floor-to-ceiling glass with his shoulder, and pressed a switch on his watch while in mid-air. A pair of green gliders inflated from the back of his belt.
Luthor glanced at the trajectory of the ship and glided in the opposite direction.
"Hmph, consider him lucky." Plenty of people knew that Thea and Luthor were business rivals by now. Her identity as a meta-human restricted her from using excessive means against Luthor. Although Luthor didn't know her abilities, he had plenty of cutting-edge tech in his hands; he was equally restricted by the rules and couldn't use those lethal means against Thea.
Their respective abilities limited them to fighting within a small scope. Unless one side's power reached the level of crushing the world and ignoring all rules, the struggle would continue for a long time.
Today's ship crash was an off-the-board move, something outside their usual game—an act of God, as far as everyone else was concerned. Unfortunately, Luthor was too decisive. Throwing away his secretary and bodyguard, he jumped straight down from a building over a hundred stories high! He didn't have superpowers; if the gliding equipment malfunctioned, he'd be absolutely dead—and in a very ugly way.
But this man's decisiveness was truly unparalleled. He made the life-saving choice without hesitation, abandoning subordinates, employees, everything. Unlike that old lady in Kansas who loved watching the excitement, Luthor's glider flew straight to the roof of a certain building, climbed onto the helicopter parked there, and chose to leave the city directly.
Thea flew forward leisurely. When she arrived in Metropolis, this once-prosperous city looked like a purgatory on Earth.
General Zod's ship smashed into the LexCorp Tower at a 45-degree angle. This landmark building of Metropolis was literally cut in half. Afterward, the ship's remaining momentum didn't dissipate; it tumbled on the ground for several thousand meters, destroying countless houses and buildings. Finally, the entire ship emitted a deafening loud noise and exploded into two pieces on the spot.
The few Kryptonians inside the ship were all killed in the explosion. Only good old Superman, who just refused to die, and Zod, who could already absorb yellow sunlight, survived.
Thea watched Superman displaying divine might and beating up General Zod there, and could only stare, at a loss for words.
Back then, Superman's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, would rather die himself to save a dog than let Superman use his superpowers to save him. If he saw this scene today, would he feel he'd died for nothing?
It was hard to understand what that Kansas farmer had been thinking when he made that choice. He might have hoped Superman would live out his life like a mortal, but the arrangement of fate wasn't something he could control.
Superman still went against his wishes, stepped out into the light, taking that crucial step in front of the entire world.
Metropolis Library, food courts, Art Center, and other buildings were all turned into ruins during the fight between the two. Finally, in their struggle, Zod used human lives as leverage, threatening Superman to make a choice. With absolutely no other option, Superman chose to follow his heart, be an Earthling, and killed General Zod.
Seeing the battle end, Thea knew it was time for her to enter the stage.
Finding an unoccupied room, she changed back into her own clothes and took out her phone to start assigning disaster relief tasks.
Although the group's senior executives felt running to Metropolis to provide disaster relief was a bit inexplicable, they didn't refuse. They were all employees; the money spent on relief wasn't theirs. Exerting some effort and commanding on-site could earn them a good reputation—why not go? Everyone went! A large group of them boarded the group's Airbus and rushed to Metropolis.
"What? Miss Thea, you went to Metropolis!" Receiving Thea's call, John Diggle, the big ex-soldier, was completely dumbfounded. He was still looking for people in Star City, and his employer had run to another city. This left him not knowing what to say.
Although he grumbled a bit internally, for someone as righteous as John Diggle, Thea asking him to lead a team to save people was a task full of honor. He had no reason to refuse.
Thea commanded Diggle to pull out the hundreds of bodyguards recruited. These guys were young and strong—the main force of the relief effort.
Afterward, she contacted Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox in Gotham, hoping Wayne Enterprises would also lend a hand.
In the original timeline, Batman ran to Metropolis to rescue the injured inexplicably because his Wayne Tower was also in Metropolis.
But in this timeline, due to Thea's involvement, a small twist occurred. The news of the Queen-Merlyn merger and the selection of the new headquarters in Metropolis made Wayne Enterprises abandon its strategic deployment to enter Metropolis. They chose to wait and see, even hoping to pick up the pieces while others fought. At this moment, Master Batman was watching TV at home with Alfred.
Receiving Thea's call, although Batman was a bit dissatisfied with Superman's unscrupulous fighting, his people hadn't suffered any accidents. Naturally, he wouldn't have such burning hatred to go against Superman. He expressed support for Thea's wish to provide relief.
As for him personally going to help, he didn't have time. Because The Joker had escaped again. Jason Todd, who had become the second Robin, was trying hard to track down clues. After watching the live broadcast of Metropolis, he still had to go hunt the Joker down.
Lucius Fox, because Queen Consolidated had been stealing Wayne Enterprises' business recently, was naturally a bit cold in his relationship with Thea, but he also stated he would send people to participate.
Thea went directly to Queen Consolidated's stronghold in Metropolis. Luthor was in the North, Queen in the South. The ship's impact point was the LexCorp Tower in the North; naturally, the battleground was also in that area. The South was affected a bit, but the losses weren't significant.
Finding the person in charge on-site and explaining her intention, the person in charge had no objections. Anyway, Thea was paying. Many of their employees were Metropolis locals; contributing to disaster relief was nothing to argue about. Many people took various tools and followed Thea to start saving people.
"Little kid, be good. Go rest on the side with this uncle; we'll save your mom..."
"Ma'am, don't worry. Your husband's bleeding has stopped. Our Medical Pods will arrive shortly; this kind of injury can be treated very quickly..."
"Your boyfriend is still down there? Okay, you go rest on the side first; we'll save him!..."
Thea constantly searched for the living in the rubble. Without using the Eye of Horus, relying only on Queen Consolidated's thermal imaging equipment, she rescued quite a few trapped citizens.
Nowadays, she had appeared on many TV interviews and was a celebrity, big or small. Even if there were people who didn't know her, once people around introduced her, they all knew her identity.
What a saint... A capitalist with a conscience was a rare sight. People had a herd mentality; more and more citizens gathered around her.